


Mockingbird, Saint of Lost Souls

by vamprav



Series: Mockingbird [1]
Category: Bandom, Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys (Album), My Chemical Romance
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Implied/Referenced Brainwashing, Podfic Welcome
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-01
Updated: 2017-07-01
Packaged: 2018-11-22 00:56:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 836
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11369226
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vamprav/pseuds/vamprav
Summary: Or, How Frank Escaped Battery City





	Mockingbird, Saint of Lost Souls

Frank was young when the Exodus happened, too young to the parade of teens and young adults and their siblings that left the city, singing at the top of their lungs. If he had an older brother or sister they might have left and taken him with them, saved him. But he didn’t so they didn’t and he was left in Battery City with mother and father and BL/ind.

He didn’t have many friends, there weren’t many children left and he didn’t like the other children in his area. They were either too young or acted like little robot people. And the friends Frank did have made his father frown so he didn’t go over their houses too often.

There was no music or color where Frank lived, everything was white, white, white. Frank knew no other existence until he had met his friends. Some of them had scraps of colorful cloth stashed away or remembered a few notes of a long forgotten song.

Those notes reverberated in his bones, the colors lit him up from the inside out and the joy almost drowned him.

Frank was very careful to never tell his father about any of it. He never sang either because if he started he knew he would never stop. So he drowned himself in his friend’s voices, in there songs, and only took out the scrap of yellow cloth under his pillow on the darkest of nights.

He’d been so, so careful because children had started disappearing. Some into BL/ind HQ, coming back different, empty, or not at all. Or just up and vanishing in the middle of the night.

But his father finds out anyway.

His father called him into his office one night and the scrap of yellow cloth was sitting on the desk. And Frank was scared, fucking terrified beyond belief because… well because.

“I’m bringing you to work with me tomorrow.”

And there it was.

The death knell.

Frank knew some of the kids who had gone into BL/ind, they had been excited or at least the first few had. They were going to work with their parents, of course they were excited and they’d come back hollow. And Frank may have been young but he wasn’t stupid, he knew what going into BL/ind meant after the third kid didn’t come back.

His friends could afford color and music, they lived in the middle and lower class sections of the city. They weren’t Frank. Weren’t an Iero. Weren’t the heir to one of BL/ind’s founding families.

He’d gone back to his room and had stared out of the window at the street. What was he going to do? There was absolutely no way he was going to BL/ind willingly, he didn’t want to die, didn’t want his personality overwritten. He wanted to run but how could he escape?

If he tried to run tomorrow the Dracs would find him. If he left now the Dracs would still find him or, worst, the Night Patrol would get him. If he tried to hide BL/ind would find him, they had eyes everywhere. They only way he could escape was to get to the desert and that-

There was a woman under his window. She was dressed head to toe in grey leather covered in dust and flecks of purple spray paint. Her eyes were the same of grey and her hair was the same shade of white as most of BL/ind’s stuff.

But what really caused him to pause was the fact that she was singing. Or, whistling really but it sounded like a song.

Later, much much later Frank will discover that the whistle was meant to sound like bird song. Years after that he learns how to whistle like she had.

Frank stared down at her and she smiled up at him. She held out her hand to him.

Frank’s eyes went wide.

The song continued even though the woman’s mouth was shut. It resonated in his gut and echoed through his brain. Almost without his consent Frank’s lips drew together and he let out one long, low note.

The woman beamed up at him.

Frank opened the window and clambered out onto the fire escape. He was smiling, a wide dopey grin that hurt his cheeks.

 

~*****~

 

She watched in amusement as Her champion dashed down the fire escape and skidded to a stop in front of Her.

“Are you here to take me away?” He asked.

She nodded and he took Her hand, grip weak but sure. She drew him with Her to Her Steed, currently in the shape of a motorcycle with an ever changing paint job.

“My name’s Frank,” Her champion said.

She tapped the side of Her Steed in response. ‘Mockingbird’ was written across the side in fancy, purple lettering.

Frank smiled and clambered onto the back of Her Steed. She climbed on in front of him. 

The engine revved and they took off towards the desert.


End file.
